The EU policy in the drugs field: present
priorities

EU policy in the drugs field has been developed in the 1990's, and is today
firmly on the European agenda. There is no simple answer to drugs, but
definitely the most effective answer is a European answer on a European scale,
one that applies the principles of safeguarding health of people and ensuring
security and respect of law in the European space.

The work undertaken by the European Commission within the EU Action Plan on
Drugs 2005-2008 is oriented towards four main goals :

- to develop sensible and effective European responses to reduce both demand
and supply. This balance between public health and law enforcement reflects the
balance between peoples’ rights and public safety. Whatever we do, it
should be based on an objective analysis of the situation, on the increasingly
reliable data that are coming through from the member States and from the EMCDDA
and

to connect with citizens in order to reach the millions of Europeans –
mostly young people - for whom taking drugs has become a normal recreational
activity, to improve our understanding of this phenomenon, and to convince drug
users across the EU that they are harming themselves and others, not only in our
own societies, but also in more distant countries;

to take due account of the frequent close links between lack of economic and
social opportunities and marginalisation on one side and drugs use on the
other;

to help countries outside the EU where drugs are cultivated to strengthen
their chance to develop their economies away from drug
dependence.

The scale of the problem

Drug consumption and mortality are at unprecedented levels and show little
sign of coming down: it is estimated that in any given month 1.5 million
Europeans take cocaine and 12 million take cannabis, of whom 3 million take it
on a more or less daily basis. 20 % of treatment requests are now related to
cannabis, placing it second only to heroin. Ecstasy, produced in Europe, is now
the second most common drug after cannabis. According to the European Monitoring
Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) , in some Member States up to 8 %
of young people take it on a regular basis. Polydrug use - the systematic and
intensive mixing of drugs, often with alcohol and medicines - is a growing
problem and difficult to treat.

HIV infection continues to have a major public health impact. In Western and
Central Europe more than 26 000 people were infected with HIV in 2005. In this
region heterosexual intercourse has become the main mode of transmission, and
harm reduction programmes have helped to reduce the spread of HIV among
injecting drug users. The main challenge is to sustain this positive development
and to prevent HIV transmission from infected injecting drug users to their
sexual partners.

In order to save lives it is important to make sure that people do not to use
drugs but it is equally important to work with injecting drug users and
implement comprehensive harm reduction services as an essential component of a
comprehensive HIV/AIDS programme.

On the supply side drugs are becoming cheaper, purer (particularly cocaine),
stronger (cannabis), and more easily available. Judging by the quantities
seized, the flow of cocaine and heroin to Europe is rising. The industry that is
behind all this, producing and moving illicit drugs around the world, is in
excellent health; it is truly global, uses the latest technology, and knows no
national boundaries - unlike much of the political and law enforcement response,
which – in spite of real progress made - has yet to match the
international scale and efficiency of organised crime in this field.

The EU's response: a balance between reducing demand and supply

The added value of working at EU level is reflected in the current EU Drugs
Strategy and the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2005-2008, which sets out specific
goals to strengthen cooperation and coordination between Member States in areas
such as prevention, harm reduction, treatment, law enforcement, and
international cooperation.

Legislation proposed by the Commission to impose minimum penalties on
cross-border traffickers was adopted by the Council in 2004. In 2005 it adopted
the Commission's proposal for a Decision to improve the information exchange and
control of new substances –which will provide a more effective means of
dealing with emerging trends and new patterns of drug use, bringing together in
one legal framework all the actors concerned: the Member States, European
Institutions, specialized agencies, and Europol.

While much remains to be done to establish a solid EU network of law
enforcement cooperation with specialised bodies like Europol and Eurojust at its
centre, the Commission for its part provides funding under the AGIS programme to
support such efforts. Close to 3 million Euros was spent last year on promoting
EU cross border law enforcement cooperation between the Member States to fight
drug trafficking, such as the use of joint investigation teams or cooperation on
fighting cocaine smuggling through airports. The Commission is planning to spend
at least 21 million Euros from 2007 on implementing the prevention and
information part of the EU Action Plan on Drugs alone. In addition, 600 million
Euros has been set aside for fighting organised crime over the next 7 years
– including drug-related crime.

Other Commission efforts in the drugs field include worldwide action against
the diversion of chemical drug precursors used in the production of illicit
drugs: EU wide rules to monitor trade, increased focus on EU border controls and
border protection to combat diversion of synthetic drugs precursors, strong EU
involvement and support in international cooperation on the operational side (in
particular Project Prism, initiated by the Commission in close cooperation with
the USA), and bilateral drug precursor cooperation agreements with major players
(e.g. Andean States, USA, Turkey and in the near future China). A major
investment is also ongoing for the development of drugs and driving safety and
control measures to create an effective and EU-wide response to drug-related
road accidents.

Demand reduction issues are currently being addressed through the EU Public
Health Programme 2003-2008, which has already spent 4.1 million euros directly
on drug-related projects up to 2004. In 2005, projects were financed on
evaluating the effectiveness of drug prevention programmes in schools and access
to treatment. In 2006, priority is given to projects dealing with harm reduction
responses to emerging trends in drug use, including the development of joint
prevention programmes focusing on socially disadvantaged groups, best practices
in drug treatment, and social reintegration. From 2007 the Commission will
continue to support demand reduction projects from the new Public Health Action
Programme 2007-2013.

Solidarity with producing countries

The EU fully subscribes to the principle of shared responsibility: demand at
home feeds production elsewhere, blurring the distinction between producer and
consumer countries.

This is reflected in the external role of the EU, which has become the main
provider of civil anti-drugs and alternative development programmes around the
world. At last count, the total stock of anti-drugs projects implemented by the
Member States and the European Commission amounted to more than 500 million
euros. Overall, the EU’s assistance has almost doubled in the last 3
years. By 2005, Commission projects in the major cocaine producing countries in
Latin America totalled 136 million euros. In Afghanistan, responsible for over
90 % of the world's opium production, the EU provided, in 2005, 250 million
euros to the Afghan government's Counter Narcotics Campaign, and last year alone
the European Commission committed 15 million to Afghanistan's Counter Narcotics
Trust Fund.

The way forward

Based on the political approach defined at EU level, it is important to unite
forces. Within the Action Plan on Drugs 2005-2008, great emphasis is put on the
dialogue with organisations from civil society.

The Commission is presently consulting (until the end of September) the
European organisations with a view to structure such a dialogue and place the
specific experience and knowledge of these organisations at the disposal of the
policy making process at EU level in a practical and sustainable form.